KAY HIVELY: Cleaning house and Mardi Gras

Russell and I have been “cleaning out” for months now. We don't do it every day and not even every week. We have been going in spells. If our house were an overweight person, it would be much slimmer and trimmer today than a couple of years ago.

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Neosho Daily News - Neosho, MO

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Posted Feb. 17, 2013 at 1:28 AM
Updated Feb 17, 2013 at 1:29 AM

Posted Feb. 17, 2013 at 1:28 AM
Updated Feb 17, 2013 at 1:29 AM

Russell and I have been "cleaning out" for months now. We don't do it every day and not even every week. We have been going in spells. If our house were an overweight person, it would be much slimmer and trimmer today than a couple of years ago.

But there is a real challenge ahead and I don't know when we are going to have the heart to start this job. We are going to go through all our slide pictures and decide which we will keep and which we will throw out. Some of our greatest trips and best times were captured on slides, so I am really dreading the job. Not only do I dread the work, but the memories we will have to toss out. The ones we can't stand to part with will be transferred to prints and to CDs.

Our son grew up in the "slide era" so I'm sure we will find many of him to keep and share. Our trip to Alaska, to Yellowstone, a trip to Canada's eastern provinces, at least one of our four trips to Niagara Falls, trips to Washington D.C., Georgia, Minnesota, Utah, the Grand Canyon, and many I'm sure I don't remember. But in time, I will see what trips and events I have forgotten. And will try my best to not spill too many tears.

It's Mardi Gras time so there is much celebration, at least in New Orleans. Sadly, Mardi Gras is much like most other things in America — it has become something far different from what it began. Affairs such as this now attract many undesirables who take advantage of the opportunity to do bad things — everything from being lewd to actually killing someone. They say time cannot move back and we have to accept "modern" ways of doing things. But I feel that we have, in some cases, lost our moral way in these "modern" times.

I know a family who has lived in New Orleans for generations. They remember the good times at Mardi Gras. Today, they celebrate at home with very good and colorful times and include the real reason to celebrate. I expect they wake up each morning of Mardi Gras without a headache.

Having never been to New Orleans, it is on my bucket list. People who know say New Orleans has changed since the hurricane and it is no longer the same city. That has put the city further down on my bucket list, but I still have a hankering to go. Perhaps I will make it yet, and since I didn't know New Orleans before, I won't know what I am missing.

But for everyone whose religion puts a lot of emphasis on Lent, I wish them goodwill and an equally good wish to all who celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Although Easter is more than a month away, it should last all year long in our hearts.